Design forming and attaching method



Aug. 4, 1953 A. w. FRANKLIN DESIGN FORMING AND ATTACHING METHOD Filed Jan. 28, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 JNVEVTOR. ALBERT W. FRANKLIN ATTORNEYS Aug. 4, 1953 A. w. FRANKLIN 2,647,852

DESIGN FORMING AND ATTACHING METHOD Filed Jan. 28, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 z Z0 Z1 Z2 J 6 6mm INVENTOR.

ALBE RT W. FRANKLIN v Z ATTORNEYS Patented Aug. 4, 1953 DE src FORMING ANI ATTACHING METHOD Albert W. Franklin, New York, N. Application January 28, 1950, Serial No. 141,000

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to a novel method adapted to automatic practice by means of which metallic designs of any imagined form can be produced without hand manipulations on a mass production basis.

A broad object of this invention is to substantially simultaneously cut and form any imagined design from a continuous strip of metal and attach it to a backing or supporting sheet or plate.

A more specific object of this invention is to practice this method by the use of a punch press type of machine by means of which any imagined design may be formed in one operation from a continuous strip of suitable metal and in the same operation attached to a backing sheet.

A still more specific object of this invention is to use a metal sheet coated on one side with a heat and pressure sensitive adhesive such as a thermo-settin plastic which is substantially simultaneously cut out to the desired configuration formed and cemented to a backing sheet, leaving in some cases all and in other cases substantially all of the waste metal integral with the strip.

Another object of this invention contemplates the formation of any imagined design in the manner above suggested, including in addition to a decorative design, utilitarian designs such as electrical circuits, electrical instrumentalities, as for example inductances, and indeed geometrical configurations for any purpose.

Other and more detailed objects of the invention will be apparent from the followin description of the embodiment thereof illustrated in the attached drawings.

The purpose of this invention is to provide a rapid method of cutting and forming metal from a continuous strip and attaching it mechanically in part by clinching and adhesion to a supporting sheet intended to. permanently carry the design. Any metal suitable for the purpose can be used, as for example copper, and the backing sheet may Figure 2 is a top plan view of the mechanism of Figure 1 with the punch press, ram and at tached parts removed, but illustrating by the formation cut the. configuration of the cutting die;

Figure 3 is a vertical, cross-sectional view through a portion of the. cutting die, he punch press bed and the. material being operated upon, showing the relationship of the parts just as the die engages the material being operated upon;

Figure 4 is. a similar view at a later stage showing the cutting. edges of the die in intermediate position;

Figure 5 is a similar view showing the cutting die at its most advanced position in relation to the materials being acted upon;

Figure 6 is a similar viewshowing the return of the die to initial; position, showing the one sheet of material beingv worked upon resting upon the other material being worked upon;

Figures 7, 8, 9 and 10 are views corresponding to Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6 respectively, showing a modified die tofcut out another configuration.

This application is a continuation in part of my copending application Serial No. 607,605, filed January 28, 1945, now Patent No. 2,451,? 25, and a continuation in part of my copending application Serial No. 669,197, filed May 11, 1946, now Patent No.. 2,535,674.

In accordance with this invention a power drivenpress is employed and such parts thereof as is necessary to an understanding of this invention have been diagrammatically illustrated in the drawings. Thus the bed of a press. is diagrammatically indicated at l, the punching head at 2, and the operating ram at 3. As is well understood through suitable. mechanism conbe of any suitable material such as a fibrous or' plastic sheet, as for example Masonite and Bakelite. It is within the ability of this invention to produce decorative designs permanently attached for. use to. a supporting sheet such as for example, nameplates, as well as various forms, of. electrical instrumentalities such as circuits of any required configuration, inductancea. switch parts,

and the like. 7

w c pa in r w Eigure. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevationalview 0f 3 ch sm i lustratin th metho h f ii disclosed d show n die r mma i e t e b d nd i o a u c press partly t ess-se in end. i m Par br e; way

nected to the ram 3, the head. 2 may be caused to reciprocate ina vertical parallel. relation with respect to the bed i. Inv accordance with this invention the head is heated. and suitable heating means in the form of electrical heating coils 4 are diagrammatically illustrated as embedded in the head. Attached: to .the lower planar face of the head 2 is a cutting die 5 also of metal, which cutting die may be. attached, in body to body con; tact with the head 2 by means of machine screws not shown. 'Ifhe die will, of, course, be formed in accordance with the particular configuration or desi to be brows At 6 is illustrated the backing sheet which may be. of a material suitable for the purposes to which the final product is to be put, and having only the characteristics" such that it will Withstand without shattering or damage the treatment to which it w ll be subjected in the process. Many materials are available for this purpose, as will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art. In a final commercial machine arrangements will be made to feed the backing sheets 6 into position on the bed I of the machine automatically.

The metal strip from which the design is to be cut out is diagrammatically illustrated in the form of a coil I mounted on an axle B in such relation to the bed I that the strip S may be fed across the bed of the machine into a guide 9 of any suitable construction which will effect the necessary lateral alignment of the strip with respect to the sheet and the die 5. The art is well aware of mechanism suitable to effect the necessary step-by-step feeding of the strip. In accordance with this invention the strip is preferably, but not necessarily, fed in a plane above the upper face of the sheet 6. The strip S will have previously been coated on its lower face with a heat and pressure sensitive adhesive such as any one of the commercially available thermoplastic adhesives. By lower face of the strip is meant that face thereof which is directed towards the upper face of the backing sheet 6.

When a fresh length of the strip Shas been fed into position, as illustrated in Figure 1, the ram 3 will drive the head 2 of the press downwardly so that the cutting edges of the die 5 will press strip S into contact with the sheet 6 and then perform the operations substantially simultaneously, which have been indicated in Figures 3 to 6 inclusive. Thu in Figure 3 it will be seen that the die 5 has been moved down to the point where the cutting edges of the design projections 26 have engaged the upper surface of the strip S and moved it into contact with the backing sheet 6. t will be understood that the adhesively coated face of the strip S now engages the sheet As the die 5 continues its downward movement its highest surface, that is its cutting edges, will shear the sheet S, as indicated in Figure 4, and this motion will continue until the cutting edges have moved into the backing sheet 5 by which time the metal will be sheared from the sheet S and the cutout part will be free between the cutting edges of the die. The pressure of the two V-shaped cutting edges at any portion of the die will force the material of the backingsheet 6, as well as that of the metal sheet S to flow up into the space between the two teeth, which will cause both a clinching action and a bonding of the cut-out portion of the metal sheet to the backing sheet due to the heat and pressure which is applied simultaneously. This upward flow of these materials is very important to effect this clinching and cementing action, and is one of the reasons why the same principle is used in forming the edges of wider portions of a design, as clearly illustrated in Figures 7 to 10 inclusive, as will be explained later.

As is clear from Figures 3 to 6 inclusive, the cutout portions of the design of narrow width are thus formed to the cross-sectional shape of the valleys between the cutting edges, as is the underlying material of the backing sheet which is forced to flow upwardly into the overlying design portions. The land between the cutting edges of the die plate 5 engaging the cutout portions of the design heats these portions to cause them to be bonded to the underlying upstanding portions of the backing sheet.

It will be recalled that the die 5 is heated since his in contact with the heated head 2 of the press, with the result that the heat and pressure sensitive adhesive on the lower face of the design or cutout portions will have been rendered sufficiently tacky to effect a firm bond between the design portions and the backing sheet 6. These design portions have been given the reference character I2, and it will be noted that when the die 5 has reached its extreme lower position it will have embedded the edges of the design areas 52 into the backing sheet 6 and have placed the design sections under pressure while heating them to effect the softening of the adhesive which when cooled will insure a very firm bond between the design sections and the backing sheet.

Attention is called to the fact, as indicated in Figure 5, that when the die 5 is at its extreme lower end of its motion all surfaces thereof which are not in contact with the design sections are not in contact with the remainder or what has now become the waste portions of the strip S. The result is that as the head 2 and die 5 are retracted the waste strip W, see Figure 6, easily pulls away from the backing sheet leaving only the design adhering thereto.

A further understanding of this method will be clear by reference to Figure 2, where the design portions 12 of the whole design are indicated.

Likewise the design portions [3 are formed and adhered to the backing sheet 6. The larger design portions !3 are shown as solid cutouts but it will be appreciated that the die can be formed so as to break the outline of those portions so as to cut out the centers of the A, I, the o and the p so as to form open letters, in which case the waste material defining the parts removed to provide the open letters will not be attached to the waste strip W, so as to be removed with it. In that case the land between the pairs of cutting edges will be at such a level as not to heat these areas, so that the metal defining them will not adhere to the backing sheet and can be easily removed in any suitable manner.

The portion of the die illustrated in Figures '7 to 10 inclusive shows the shape of the die for the formation, for example, of the A and the i of the design shown. Where the space between the cutting edges 3G is relatively wide the land 32 between the pairs of cutting edges can be relieved at the bases of the cutting edges, as shown at 3!, to provide an angular space for the metal to bulge into in order to provide for'the clinching operation and additional binding of the metal to the backing sheet. At the edges of the wider portions of a design not only are the side edges with those portions forced up into the relieved areas of the die to shape these edges to produce a clinching action, but the underlying material of the backing sheet is also forced up into these shaped edges to insure this clinching action and to provide areas to which the edges of the strip are cemented as previously explained. The relieved areas 3| have been exaggerated in the drawings and in conformity therewith it will be seen that the edges of the design will be humped up as at 35, as it is forced into the relieved areas 3i. This is not undesirable since it does not mar the appearance of the design, and this is especially true in the actual article because these ridges are very minute. It will be seen that the land 32 between the cutting edges is at such a level as to engage the design areas for the purpose of heating the heat sensitive adhesive and pressing the design portions into firm contact with the backing sheet 6 to insure that the adhesive produces an effective bond between the design areas and the backing sheet 6. As before, the remainder of the die surface, as indicated for example at 3B, is at such a level that it does not contact the strip S when the die is fully seated, so that no heating and bonding is effected at these waste areas.

In this method which consists of a single operation of the press to cut and shear a metal design out of a metal sheet, clinch and cement this design to the nonmetallic base material and leave the scrap metal free for easy separation, it is important that the cutting edges are at the apices of inclined faces of the die which facilitates withdrawal of the die from the waste strip W without any tendency of the strip adhering thereto and interfering with the next step of feeding the strip S longitudinally for the next operation. This tapered form of the die and cutting edges also insures against any tendency of the cutout portions of the design to bind with the die as it is Withdrawn, and thus undesirably tend to separate the design portions from the backing sheet.

As diagrammatically illustrated in Figure 1, the punch head 2 may be provided with a bracket II for supporting the shearing knife I0 which cooperates with the edge of the guide 9 to shear off each length of waste on each operation of the press, so as to cut the waste strip up into short lengths suitable for bundling and reshipment to the mill.

From the above description it will be seen that by means of the method herein disclosed decorative and utilitarian designs of practically any configuration capable of embodiment in a die may be duplicated with great rapidity. These designs are cut, formed and attached to a backing sheet within the cycle of a single movement of a punch press head, leading to a very high speed method of duplicating desired designs and attaching them to a supporting sheet.

From the above description it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the subject matter of this invention is capable of practice with variations which are not beyond the expected variations to which a novel method of this type will be subjected in practical commercial use. I do not, therefore, desire to be strictly limited to the details set forth herein to illustrate the nature and scope of this invention, but rather prefer restriction only as required by the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A continuous method of manufacturing a composite unit of predetermined configuration, comprising the steps of feeding a strip of thin metal having a thermo-sensitive adhesive coating on one side lengthwise along a defined path in successive increments of limited movement, successively positioning backing sheets of materials which flow at the temperatures and pressures of the process opposite said strip in an indexed position with their upper faces spaced from and facing the coated side of said strip, successively applying cutting edges of predetermined configuration to the uncoated side of said strip to move it into contact with said backing sheets and shear a design of such configuration from said strip by pressing the cutting edges through said strip into said backing plates while heating and pressing the sheared design to adhere it to said backing plate, and relieving the pressure on said strip so that it resumes its spaced position with respect to the backing plate, thereby stripping unattached portions of the strip from the completed unit.

ALBERT W. FRANKLIN.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,706,033 MacCordy Mar. 19, 1929 2,043,809 Papp June 9, 1936 2,231,529 Dey Feb. 11, 1941 2,288,735 OConnell July 7, 1942 2,321,740 Flint June 15, 1943 2,401,472 Franklin June 4, 1946 2,468,965 Ekstrom May 3, 1949 2,482,981 Kamrass Sept. 27, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 283,085 Great Britain Jan. 5, 1928 

